It's that time again, the best comments of the previous week. It was a bountiful week, with World Bank protests, Metro employees chowing down, and new dog park regulations Read on, and register if you haven't! ----- Everybody had something to say about D.C. switching to taxi meters. shawndc: I'm glad Fenty had the balls to stand up to the Taxi commission and move ahead with meters. Let's hope they can get it up and......

Good morning, Washington. Remember last week, when we were wondering what kind of a plan a criminal had after stealing a tanker truck hauling gasoline in Baltimore? The truck was later found parked on South Capitol Street in Southwest D.C., drained of about 7,000 gallons of No. 2 diesel fuel. This morning we learn that the missing gasoline was found at a Chevron station in Southeast Washington, which police are now investigating. Weekend Protests Saw......

The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund begin on Friday, and the city will see a number of changes in traffic patterns and road closures this weekend as a result. Here's what you should plan around: Streets closed to vehicles: Beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 19, until 2 a.m. on Sunday, October 21 * Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between 17th Street and 20th Street, NW * 19th Street, NW......

>> A federal administrative appeals court has struck down the District's drug-pricing control law, saying it violates federal patent law. The ruling is considered a major win for the pharmaceutical industry. [WaPo] >> The city has agreed on a settlement of $1 million to about 120 protesters who were improperly detained by police during demonstrations in D.C. against the invasion of Iraq, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2002. [AP via......

No matter how you feel about a city known for its hippie culture or holier-than-thou aging baby boomers, you sort of have to love Takoma Park, Md. Commonly referred to as "The People's Republic of Takoma Park" or "The Berkeley of the East", the commuter suburb right on the border of the District is not only charmingly beautiful, but the people who live there wear their political proclivities on their collective sleeves so seriously they......

>> If you're in the market for a Crown Victoria, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has a few to sell. [WTOP] >>It looks like Paul Wolfowitz might finally soon be gone from the World Bank. But President Bush isn't about to let his departure spoil an otherwise solid 12-year run during which the bank's president has had the word "wolf" somewhere in their name. Obvious replacements are Wolf Blitzer, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Wolfgang Puck......

When Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty announced last week that he'd chosen Cathy Lanier, a 16-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, to replace Charles Ramsey atop the police force, local media didn't do much more than throw together a few details on her history and her ideas for fighting crime in the District. The City Paper, though, started digging. The paper trail they uncovered on Lanier makes for relatively interesting reading by City Paper standards, though......

As you know, DCist is a hungry media powerhouse. So, when we moved into our marbled Hall of Justice-like complex in Dupont Down Under, we insisted that our lair contain a state-of-the-art cafeteria. According to the internal memo sent to "All DCists," we included a cafeteria because we wanted our staff of thousands to have quick access to a reasonably priced meal. But you've got to realize that that's only partially true. Even though......

Happy Hot as Hell Tuesday, everyone. Yes, it's going to 100 degrees today, with a heat index up around 110. The best advice is to stay inside whenever possible during what we like to call our Heat Emergency, but if you have to be outdoors, the National Weather Service advises drinking plenty of water, planning activities outside for the morning or evening and wearing loose, light-colored clothing and a hat. It's unfortunate that the current......

At 8 a.m. on any given weekday, just around the corner from the Foggy Bottom Metro station you’ll likely spot four or five bike messengers huddled around a red Ford Econoline van. Each morning they meet with groggy eyes to rummage through wrapped packages like slightly under-enthusiastic children on Christmas morning. Brought in via Dulles International Airport, the packages are addressed to locations all over the District. This is the first run of many for......

Thankfully, Mother Nature will be going easier on us this week than she did on Saturday, which saw record rainfall for the dry region. Our friends at Capital Weather are telling us that spare Tuesday and Sunday, it should be a great spring week. New D.C. Public Library Likely: Though many District activists continue to push for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library to be salvaged, the Post reported yesterday that a new......

It was in April 2000 that tens of thousands of anti-globalization protestors marched the streets of the District, protesting the secretive meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and the policies that emerged from them. Police presence was heavy, given a nervous sense that Washington could go the route of Seattle, which just months prior had been the scene of an epic battle between protestors and police that had provoked an imposition of......

Good morning D.C., and happy Earthday Eve (if that's a thing). It looks like Mother Nature will be providing plenty of mud in which to celebrate the observance: the weekend forecast is for rain, rain and more rain. Md. Gets Electricity Rate Relief: WTOP reports that Governor Ehrlich has reached an agreement with Baltimore Gas & Electric to forestall the 72% rate hikes that had been looming for Maryland utility consumers. Customers opting into the......

If you're pouring one out for your boys at tonight's happy hour, give pause for Kim Ward. It's Ward's Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran that has set aside Georgetown's former Staples store for some face melting art exhibits in the past few months (that small Post Secret thing, for example). Wallsnatchers is the venue's most recent offering, a graffiti and street art installation that represents a stark contrast to the ink cartridge and paper......

We were a bit alarmed with a tipster wrote to us that "there is a huge freaking fire burning in front of the World Bank. Plumes of smoke, people running, the whole enchilada." D.C. government's emergency alert system has issued two alerts, one reporting a "Man hole cover explosion at 18th & G St., NW." and a follow-up sent minutes later reporting "Several street closures surrounding area of man hole cover explosion." After snooping around......

Today will be partly cloudy in the morning then clearing, with highs around 80. Latte Driving: The Post analyzes the complications to the regular commute caused by coffee - what one researcher has dubbed the "Starbucks effect": "The two men represent what one researcher says is evidence that the national craving for gourmet coffee may be adding mileage to the morning rush hour." Nats Unveil Mascot: His favorite song? "Fly Like an Eagle," of course.......

As you may be well aware, protesters are descending on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund campus near the White House this weekend to protest the meetings of the Group of Seven. According to Reuters, economic officials are focusing on two things: high oil prices (and how they may be here for the long-run) and China's stubbornness to revalue the yuan. And U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow is expected to be pressured "to cut......

The weekend is here, the weather is looking to be beautiful, and cameras will be employed to monitor your every move in the city. What else could you ask for? Well, for the more privacy-oriented among us, the recent announcement that the Metropolitan Police Department will be using an advanced network of video cameras city-wide to monitor this weekend's protests against the World Bank and IMF could seem just a little more than Big Brotherish,......

Good Morning, Washington. Throughout the day, we'll have complete coverage of all the Nationals opening day action from inside and outside RFK. So stay tuned. In the meantime, the weather will be spring-like, says Capital Weather. With "[c]risp, clear nights and mild, sunny afternoons ... [t]hese are the qualities that give spring a wonderful reputation." So enjoy the slowly warming weather, which is pretty much perfect for some rowing on the Potomac, as pictured in......

We picked up this little tidbit via Laura Rozen's blog, War and Piece. It seems that folks in a diplomat-heavy neighborhood in Upper Northwest are less than pleased that one of the chief architects -- one Paul Wolfowitz -- of the Iraq war is staging a very different sort of "invasion and occupation" in their neck o' the woods, as the Post mentioned this past week. The reason? A not-so-secret romance with Arab feminist and......

Calm down, you World Bank bureaucrats. We have not allowed the news of your new boss to pass us by. As President Bush positions his nominee to run the Bank and European governments brace for the coming change, it’s difficult to see who comes out ahead in the transfer of power. One early winner is definitely the guy who’ll change the office nameplate, as they’ll merely have to scrape the “-ensohn” off the door and......

In more protest news, seven of the 400+ protesters unlawfully arrested in Pershing Park during the September 2002 protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank reached a settlement with the District of Columbia today in federal court. The seven plantiffs, including Adam Eidinger, his wife Alexis Baden-Mayer and her father Joe Mayer, will receive $48,000 each and a letter of apology from Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Charles Ramsey. (The photo is......

Terror Threat Lowered: We aren’t in an orange mood any more. The Department of Homeland Security has lowered the terror threat to financial institutions in Washington, New York and northern New Jersey. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the terror threat has gone away, the Department of Homeland Security reminds us. That move has let the Capitol Police to dismantle security checkpoints on roadways leading to Capitol Hill. Also, the AP, via WTOP, reports that......

Veterans Day is tomorrow and the official observance of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month will bring a whole host of closures and modified schedules. Check out the District's rundown of Veterans Day events and closures. Veterans Day is rooted in Armistice Day, which remembers when the guns fell silent on the Western Front during the first World War. In a city that has memorials dedicated to Armenian earthquake victims,......

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have drawn once again protestors opposed to radical neoliberal economic globalization to D.C. In what one Indymedia writer termed the "World Bank/IMF season opener" a group led a picket of the U.S. Treasury at noon today, posting some photos on Indymedia. (Including the photo to the right) It seems likely the protests tomorrow will be small, if the discussion thread on a post......

Be aware that on Friday, meetings at the headquarters of the World Bank will cause the closure of streets in the vicinity of the White House and Foggy Bottom. From the AP, via WJLA/ABC-7: The traffic troubles begin right smack in the middle of Friday morning's rush hour. At 8:30 a.m., police will shut 18th, 19th and 20th streets, between Pennsylvania Avenue and F Street. And G Street will close between 17th and 21st. We......

D.C. police have been in a touch of hot water lately. First, DC Indymedia reports on some discontent from police conduct during Adams Morgan Day on Sept. 12. Apparently a man calling himself "Mr. Care" was harrassed by a police officer upset with his anti-Bush signs, which our Indymedia friends helpfully post online. Second, a federal judge has ruled that Police Chief Charles Ramsey and his assistant could be held liable for the illegal mass......

Activists have posted photos of a protest held yesterday at the Treasury Department on DC.Indymedia. The protest included representatives from a variety of organizations demanding debt relief for impoverished third world nations from international lending organizations. Organizers argued the IMF and World Bank was more interested in collecting money than helping combat the global AIDS pandemic. Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the Treasury Department was preparing a plan for debt relief, an......

DCist is not a big fan of MapQuest. Despite the fact that the mapping service can be very useful, direction queries can often give confusing directions, or in some cases, directions that are just plain wrong. So we decided to torment the MapQuest computers by giving it two locations near the White House: 1550 Pennsylvania Ave. NW and 1750 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. One is inside a restricted zone, the second is outside. 1550 would......

With a good number of Republicans in New York this week for the GOP convention and nothing of political consequence going on around D.C., there are eight days left of official Washington's summer season. After Labor Day, national politics will dominate town and the city will be abuzz with campaign chatter and election speculation. Minds will ponder how the social and professional landscape of the city could change with a Kerry presidency, a Bush second-term,......